Congratulations to Justice Brett Kavanaugh, confirmed on Saturday to function the 102nd Affiliate Justice of the Supreme Court of america. And congratulations to his 4 regulation clerks, all ladies — the primary time a justice has had an all-female clerk class in SCOTUS historical past.

Earlier than turning to them, a couple of temporary ideas on the bruising battle that culminated in Justice Kavanaugh’s affirmation by a Senate vote of 50-48 (the narrowest margin for a profitable nomination since 1881). I didn’t write or tweet a lot concerning the course of because it was unfolding — I endure from melancholy and nervousness, and the method we simply endured was not good for both — however now that it’s over, right here’s my take.

My final substantive public remark was a New York Occasions op-ed revealed shortly after Dr. Christine Blasey Ford got here ahead together with her allegations of sexual assault towards Brett Kavanaugh. I argued that we would have liked an FBI investigation and Senate Judiciary Committee hearings earlier than voting on the Kavanaugh nomination — for the sake of Dr. Blasey, then-Decide Kavanaugh, and the Supreme Court.

After a lot wrangling and drama, we did have an FBI investigation and SJC hearings. These proceedings had their flaws, to make certain, however they befell. Conscious of the allegations towards Decide Kavanaugh, the USA Senate exercised its “advice and consent” perform, and it confirmed him to the Supreme Court. Decide Kavanaugh is now Justice Kavanaugh, and that’s not altering anytime quickly.

What about all of the speak of impeachment proceedings if the Democrats take again the Home in November, as is extensively anticipated? Within the phrases of Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who voted towards Kavanaugh, “we need healing” after this horrible and divisive course of. And as Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) put it, “Talking about [impeachment] at this point isn’t necessarily healing us and moving us forward. The Senate’s role in our politics is not to just reflect the country, but to help heal and lead the country. And that’s the course that we should be on.”

As famous by Senator Coons, just one justice has ever been impeached in U.S. historical past — Justice Samuel Chase, in case you’re questioning — and he was acquitted on all counts within the Senate, the place a two-thirds vote is required for removing from workplace. Even when the Home have been to question Justice Kavanaugh, it’s a close to certainty that the Senate wouldn’t take away him from workplace. Impeachment can be a waste of effort and time — effort and time that Democrats ought to as an alternative spend on making an attempt to win elections.

Now’s a time to look ahead, not backward — and to offer Justice Kavanaugh the prospect to show himself to be the “independent, impartial judge” that he promised to be in his current Wall Road Journal op-ed. The Washington Submit opposed the Kavanaugh nomination, however as they wrote in an editorial revealed after his affirmation (emphasis added):

[I]t can be as much as the brand new justice to hunt to reassure a rustic riven over his choice that he has the temperament and judgment to do the job; as necessary, will probably be as much as the courtroom as an entire to exhibit that it isn’t simply one other partisan establishment. And it is going to be as much as those that opposed his affirmation, together with this web page, to guage Mr. Kavanaugh pretty in his new place.

Justice Kavanaugh is off to an excellent begin, at the least in a single respect: variety in regulation clerk hiring. As first reported by Adam Liptak within the New York Occasions, the 4 Kavanaugh clerks for the Time period that began on October 1 are all ladies — a primary at One First Road. And due to them, ladies represent a majority of this Time period’s clerks (21 out of 41), the primary time this has occurred in SCOTUS historical past. (This isn’t a primary for Decide Kavanaugh, although; in 2014-2015, he had the primary all-woman class of clerks within the historical past of the D.C. Circuit.)

One other fascinating reality: of the 21 ladies clerking at SCOTUS in October Time period 2018, Justice Kavanaugh can declare ties to eight of them, or greater than a 3rd. 4 might be clerking in his chambers, and 4 others beforehand clerked for him on the D.C. Circuit. It’s additionally value noting that he provisionally employed his 4 SCOTUS clerks earlier than the sexual-misconduct claims towards him turned public (so this will’t be dismissed as some type of publicity stunt to dispel these allegations).

Justice Kavanaugh may also take credit score for advancing racial variety among the many OT 2018 clerk class. Of the three African-American clerks this Time period, two beforehand clerked for him on the D.C. Circuit (i.e., he was their “feeder judge” to SCOTUS).

Okay, sufficient with the preliminaries; let’s meet the brand new Kavanaugh clerks. Right here they’re, as reported by Marcia Coyle for the Nationwide Regulation Journal:

>> Shannon Grammel, a 2017 Stanford Regulation Faculty graduate, was a summer time affiliate in 2016 on the companies Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. She was a member of the regulation faculty’s Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, the place she labored intently with the veteran Supreme Court advocate Jeff Fisher. Grammel was a clerk to Decide J. Harvie Wilkinson III on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Wilkinson is extensively referred to as a number one conservative thinker and a number one “feeder” decide, sending clerks to the Supreme Court.

>> Megan Lacy is a 2010 graduate of the College of Virginia Faculty of Regulation. She clerked in 2013-2014 for Decide Diarmuid O’Scannlain on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She previously was a counsel to Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who headed the Supreme Court affirmation course of for Kavanaugh. She joins Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court from the White Home, the place she was engaged on his affirmation with White Home Counsel Donald McGahn.

>> Since September, Sara Nommensen, a 2016 Harvard Regulation graduate, has been an attorney-adviser within the U.S. Division of Justice’s Workplace of Authorized Counsel, underneath the management of former Dechert associate Steven Engel. She was a scholar of Kavanaugh’s whereas at Harvard Regulation Faculty and signed a letter with different former Kavanaugh college students in help of his nomination. Nommensen was the vice chairman of social actions on the Harvard Regulation chapter of the Federalist Society.

>> Kim Jackson, a 2017 Yale Regulation Faculty graduate and an African American, clerked for Kavanaugh this previous yr on the D.C. Circuit. She additionally was one in every of his former clerks to signal a letter supporting his excessive courtroom nomination.

A number of extra enjoyable information about these 4 extremely completed clerks, gleaned from my very own sources and analysis:

1. Shannon Grammel was President of the Stanford Regulation Assessment, and she or he had simply began working on the Justice Division’s high-powered Civil Appellate division earlier than she landed the Kavanaugh clerkship.

2. Kim Jackson served as Articles and Essays Editor of the Yale Regulation Journal. She beforehand clerked for Decide Dabney Friedrich (D.D.C.), whom I beforehand flagged as one to observe as a future feeder decide. I additionally just lately discovered, as did the remainder of the world in our complete tour of Brett Kavanaugh’s private life, that she dated him again in 1998.

(Aspect word: listening to about when Justice Kavanaugh misplaced his virginity struck me because the SCOTUS model of President Clinton’s notorious boxers/briefs second — and simply considered one of many indicators of the surreality of this affirmation battle.)

three. Megan Lacy was working as Senior Advisor to Brent McIntosh, Basic Counsel of the Treasury Division (and a former Kavanaugh colleague from the Bush White Home), however she had been detailed over to the White Home to serve on the legislative group dealing with the Kavanaugh nomination. Along with clerking for my former boss, Lacy clerked for Decide Sidney Fitzwater (N.D. Tex.).

Decide Kavanaugh shifting as much as turn into Justice Kavanaugh will shake up the SCOTUS feeder decide rankings, which he dominated for therefore a few years. As famous by Marcia Coyle (emphases added):

On the D.C. Circuit, Kavanaugh employed 25 ladies and 23 males as regulation clerks. His 4 clerks from 2014 to 2015 have been ladies, and 21 of the 25 he employed went on to U.S. Supreme Court clerkships. His 48 clerks represented numerous background and viewpoints….

Kavanaugh despatched 39 of his 48 clerks to the Supreme Court, together with clerks serving justices within the present time period. Though most of these clerks have gone to the conservative justices — with Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. hiring 13, the most important quantity –Kavanaugh despatched two every to justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, and one to Stephen Breyer. No former Kavanaugh clerk has gone on to clerk for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Now that we all know the identities of all 41 clerks for October Time period 2018, listed here are updates to the feeder regulation faculty and decide rankings from my August hiring roundup:

1. Feeder faculties. Supreme Court clerks proceed to return from a handful of elite faculties. The 41 clerks for OT 2018 come from simply 14 faculties — and three faculties, the “HYS” trinity of Harvard, Stanford, and Yale, produced 28 out of 41 clerks (68 %). Yale leads the best way with 13 clerks, Harvard has ten, and Stanford has 5. Solely two different faculties, Chicago and UVA, have multiple clerk.

2. Feeder judges. The 41 clerks for OT 2018 come from 43 totally different lower-court judges. The judges with multiple clerk on the Court for the upcoming Time period are Judges Kavanaugh (7), Griffith (three), Srinivasan (three), Tatel (three), Feinerman (three), Sullivan (three), Garland (2), Katsas (2), O’Scannlain (2), Pryor (2), Wilkinson (2), and Oetken (2). Out of these ten judges, a whopping six sit on the Most Holy D.C. Circuit: Judges Kavanaugh, Griffith, Srinivasan, Tatel, Garland, and Katsas. Three are district judges: Judges Feinerman (N.D. Sick.), Oetken (S.D.N.Y.), and Sullivan (S.D.N.Y., however on his approach to the Second Circuit).

Now that we all know the identities of Justice Kavanaugh’s clerks, I’ve up to date the OT 2018 clerk roster, which seems under.

When you have any corrections to this info, or if in case you have any hiring information we’ve got not but reported, please attain out by e mail or textual content (646-820-8477). Please embrace the phrases “SCOTUS Clerk Hiring” in your e mail or textual content message, maybe as the topic line of your e mail or the primary phrases of your textual content, as a result of that’s how I find the following pointers in my overwhelmed inbox (which, fact be advised, I don’t verify as diligently as I used to since I stepped down as managing editor a yr in the past). Thanks!

OCTOBER TERM 2018 SUPREME COURT CLERK HIRES (as of October eight, 2018)

Have you learnt a few rent not beforehand reported, or do you could have an addition or correction to any of this information? Please share what you already know by e mail or textual content (646-820-8477). Please embrace the phrases “SCOTUS Clerk Hiring” in your e mail or textual content message, as the topic line of your e mail or the primary phrases of your textual content, as a result of that’s how I find the following pointers in my inundated inbox. Thanks!

With Battle Over, a New Justice Shortly Will get to Work and Units a Document [New York Times]Meet Justice Kavanaugh’s 4 Feminine SCOTUS Regulation Clerks [National Law Journal]

Earlier:

David Lat is editor at giant and founding editor of Above the Regulation, in addition to the writer of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. He beforehand labored as a federal prosecutor in Newark, New Jersey; a litigation affiliate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; and a regulation clerk to Decide Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. You’ll be able to join with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Fb, and you may attain him by e mail at dlat@abovethelaw.com.